Hena Ashraf’s Short Film Takes A Fun Swipe at Tinder Date Selfies

Shot on the UCLA campus where Hena Ashraf is pursuing her MFA in film directing, short film Selfie Trash offers an amusing and critical look at the nearly inescapable smartphone self-portrait.

Ashraf’s previous film work includes Small Delights (2013), a narrative short about a music-loving hijabi-wearing teen, for which she won “Best Emerging Filmmaker” at the Queens World Film Festival. She is currently working on a second feature script, about migrants.

Unlike the two men meeting up via Tinder in Selfie Trash, Ashraf doesn’t really do selfies: “I just can’t seem to do them. And I think we live in a world that is over-run by selfie-taking and it distracts people from the more important things in life, like making sure you don’t step in dog poo or get run over by a skateboarder.”

Sharing more about the ideas and inspiration for the film, Ashraf says, “Selfie Trash is also a commentary about how we can do too many things on our phones now — find people to date, take and post photos, find places to eat, etc. I’ve done these things too and so Selfie Trash is making fun of this online dating culture and also takes a critical look at how much we use our phones and tune other people out.

“I have a lot of thoughts in general when it comes to technology and social media, as a lot of it makes me uncomfortable. I’m someone who still buys books and CDs for example; I don’t do Kindle or mp3s. So, I wanted to make a neat little film that takes an unwavering yet also comedic view at the way technology impacts our interactions with each other.”